the 144,000 saints of Israel ...

literal or symbolic?

First note Enoch's statement [in Enoch 1, but also recorded by Jude below]:-

Jude 1:14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints

Despite the countless attacks on this scripture, the original Hebrew is the singe word for 'ten thousand' , it is not ambiguous, it really does mean only tens of thousands [i.e. between 20,000 and 199,999] just as is the 144,000 mentioned by Jesus in his revelation from God in three places :-

Revelation 7:4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

Revelation 14:1 And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father’s name written in their foreheads.
...
Revelation 14:3 And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.

The number is not symbolic then, but literal, Jesus explaining it as 12,000 only from each of but twelve of the tribes of Israel [excluding the names of Dan and Ephraim]

Moses is the only other one to have mentioned tens of thousands [literally] of saints :-

Deuteronomy 33:2 And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them.

The interesting aspect to this is that God rejected both the House of Israel and the Jews for not being saints under their old covenant with Him , redeeming only a very few 'friends of God' , one from every seventh generation , before Jesus begins the creation of many more, tens of thousands by God's holy spirit, the comforter come at last to Israel....

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